Coiled electric heating coils are usually supported on electrically insulating supports (called "insulators" or "stand-offs" in the art) carried by a frame. The design of the support has been the subject of much attention. The supports are usually of ceramic material and must be able to withstand handling during production and assembly. The support should be easily mounted on the frame and should permit simple connection of the coil to the support. And, of course, the support should securely fix the coil to the frame while allowing for dimensional changes of the coil as it is heated.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,742 shows a heater assembly utilizing a stand-off (which was the subject matter of a separate application Ser. No. 85,757 abandoned in view of U.S. Pat. No. 2,856,500) which was a significant simplification over the stand-offs in use. The retention features were good but mounting the coil on the insulator required the coil to be turned 90.degree. from its mounted position in order to pass over the end of the stand-off. Then the coil was turned back 90.degree. to secure the coil. This consumed too much time and ran the risk of damage to the coil as well as the risk of not having the coil figuration as designed due to difficulty in determining which coil loops to secure to the insulator.